The _Matthew_ narrator states that _all_ the generations from Abraham to David are _fourteen_, from David until the carrying away into Babylon are _fourteen_, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Jesus are _fourteen_ generations.[161:1] Surely nothing can have a more _mythological_ appearance than this. But, when we confine our attention to the genealogy itself, we find that the generations in the third stage, including Jesus himself, amount to only _thirteen_. All attempts to get over this difficulty have been without success; the genealogies are, and have always been, hard nuts for theologians to crack. Some of the early Christian fathers saw this, and they very wisely put an _allegorical_ interpretation to them. Dr. South says, in Kitto's Biblical Encyclopædia: "Christ's being the true Messiah depends upon his being the son of David and king of the Jews. _So that unless this be evinced the whole foundation of Christianity must totter and fall._" Another writer in the same work says: "In these two documents (Matthew and Luke), which profess to give us the genealogy of Christ, there is no notice whatever of the connection of his only earthly parent with the stock of David. On the contrary, both the genealogies profess to give us the descent of Joseph, to connect our Lord with whom by natural generation, would be to falsify the whole story of his miraculous birth, and overthrow the Christian faith." Again, when the idea that one of the genealogies is Mary's is spoken of: "One thing is certain, that our belief in Mary's descent from David is grounded on inference and tradition and not on any direct statement of the sacred writings. And there has been a ceaseless endeavor, both among ancients and moderns, to gratify the natural cravings for knowledge on this subject." Thomas Scott, speaking of the genealogies, says: "It is a favorite saying with those who seek to defend the history of the Pentateuch against the scrutiny of modern criticism, that the objections urged against it were known long ago. The objections to the _genealogy_ were known long ago, indeed; and perhaps nothing shows more conclusively than this knowledge, the disgraceful dishonesty and willful deception of the most illustrious of Christian doctors."[161:2] Referring to the two genealogies, Albert Barnes says: "No two passages of Scripture have caused more difficulty than these, and various attempts have been made to explain them. . . . Most interpreters have supposed that Matthew gives the genealogy of Joseph, and Luke that of Mary. _But though this solution is plausible and may be true, yet it wants evidence._"